Friday, July 17, 2015
Today I am grateful for zucchini. It’s early in the season. By September we’ll all be ready to pitch the stuff from our car windows.
My parents planted a garden every single year of my life. . .even when they were older. My grandparents had a farm and also planted a vegetable garden every single year. Never, ever do I remember seeing, hearing about, or eating zucchini, until I was a grown up living in Pennsylvania. Is zucchini eastern? Does it go to Broadway shows? Does it spend summers “down-the-shore”? Or was it simply my parents and grandparents didn’t like the veggie? Who knows?
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I kinda love zucchini. Most times. Sometimes I get sick of it, too, especially when restaurants serve it glommed up with peppers and other crap in a red sauce. Not my favorite. Grilled is the best. Zucchini bread is great, but I only have other peoples because I can’t be trusted with it in my house. Sometimes I chop it up like a cucumber and put it in a salad. It’s milder, yet gives the same crunch. Sort of. It offers a lot of bang for the buck.
Usually I like the smaller ones, but when my husband went to the farmer’s market they only had larger. Okay! Zucchini boat pizza’s! Works for me. Cut them lengthwise and scoop them out. The second time I made them I flattened out the bottom by slicing a little off, too. Live and learn. Cook up chopped portabella mushrooms, onions and spices, just to shrink them and make them tender. Also the second time I did this I chopped up some fresh basil and added it to the above mixture at the end. I couldn’t get enough to stick when I put the leaves on without wilting them. Spoon some pizza sauce into the pizza boat, dump in the mushroom onions. I had some hot sausage crumbled and cooked in the freezer so I put some of that on top, but you could use pepperoni or even turkey pepperoni. Then I topped with part skim mozzarella. 375 degrees for about 20-30 minutes. Voila! High fiber, lo cal dinner. For me. He wouldn’t touch it if he was starving. Zucchini is green. You’re welcome.
